6. November, 2006 - elections tomorrow

Elections are tomorrow here in the US. That’s making for a certain amount of noise that I just haven’t been paying much attention to. Still not even sure if I’m going to vote. But if you are, here’s a quick bit of information on the transportation amendment that’s on the ballot in MN, and some more tools for voters that you might find useful.

The weekend, it was just gosh-darned nice. Saturday was the flickr walk with a big turnout, and lots of pictures by folks. Then I came home and put the bagger on the lawnmower and got all the leaves off the lawn. I’m sure my neighbor appreciates that, since they won’t blow onto her lawn for her to rake now. Then it was the monthly card-game that I host, and to bed. Sunday, I’d planned to head up for lunch with mom, but I was still coughing and sneezing and feared I might still be contagious, so I stayed home, uploaded the pictures to flickr, and then relaxed through what remained of the day.

The weather’s supposed to be gosh-darned nice again the next few days, and I’m sure it’s going to be difficult to keep my mind on the work I’m supposed to be completing this week. And then maybe we get snow on the weekend. That’s Minnesota for you.

Ooh, pretty. The Serene from Bang & Olufsen is one of the coolest cell-phones I’ve seen. I think I’m going to have to go look at one in a store… Won’t buy one, but damn, it’s sure pretty. [vowe]

Jim says: Every now and then there’s evidence that our “elected representatives” have too much time on their hands [I’d say it’s more often than that]. A recent example of this is when one Minneapolis City Council Member tried to regulate what kind of music can be played at a bar. The concept is so absurd I really don’t know what else to say. [What Jim said, but I’ve never been especially impressed by Diane Hofstede - she seems well-meaning, but completely and utterly clueless about the law of unintended consequences] [jim]

Finally, on the work front, I’ve been having to work with XML, and boy has it been an education. As a technology XML is such a broad thing as to be essentially meaningless. Even Tim Bray, one of the co-inventors of XML says XML Is Too Hard For Programmers. In a comment on Slashdot, an anonymous coward said XML is like PDF without Acrobat. That’s a pretty damned good metaphor in my mind. And of course, Joel had something to say about it years ago in an article titled Back to Basics (which I wish more people deciding this stuff would read). Anyway, the XML I’m having to work with is vastly over-complicated for me to deal with because of the intellectual laziness of the company using it. I don’t really care how the data is represented internally, but because they’re expressing it in a standard format, they feel they don’t need to provide any accessor functions. And that’s what I get to fight with this week. Pretty exciting, eh?